Thursday, May. 29, 2008

Modestans get help in quest to restore 1946 racer to 'dream car' state

The battered and bruised shell of the "Conrad Special" -- a 1946 dream car built by Modesto mechanic Leroy Conrad -- resurfaced this week, ending a years-old mystery for its new owners.

About five years ago, Bill Taylor and his sons, Ryan and Austin, paid Art Wels $2,500 for the remains of the car.

They dreamed of restoring the unusual two-seat roadster to its former glory.

All they needed to do was figure out what it looked like when it was built -- a task that until now had proved all but impossible.

The Taylors hadn't heard of the Conrad Special, though Bill Taylor remembered Leroy Conrad and his Modesto-based auto body repair shop. Conrad died in 1994.

"I just never put the two together," he said.

And by the time Ryan Taylor saw the car, which had been sitting under a tarp in Wels' barn, there wasn't a lot of it left.

"The engine already had been sold," Ryan Taylor said. "He (Wels) was parting it out. It was in pretty bad shape, but I could tell it was scratch-built. You don't see something like that very often."

The 1946 "pink slip" identified the vehicle as the "Conrad Special Racer."

Wels told the Taylors he bought it years earlier from a used-car dealer in Artesia, a small city in southeast Los Angeles County.

Another former owner may have been a Los Angeles DJ known as the "Squeakin' Deacon."

Until Sunday, the Taylors knew little else about the car's history and only could guess at its original condition and color scheme.

Austin Taylor, who is leading the family restoration project, said it appeared the car had been damaged over the years and repainted several times. He believes the original paint was blue and red.

So, what happened Sunday?

The Bee published an interview with Modesto custom car guru Gene Winfield.

In the story, Winfield said he had driven Conrad's car to Hollywood during the 1940s, where it was shown to at least two potential buyers -- movie stars Gary Cooper and Keenan Wynn.

Winfield said the car was painted a vibrant red and blue and was powered by a Ford "flat-head" V-8 engine. He described riding in the passenger seat when Wynn took it for a test drive.

The actor didn't buy the car; he complained the suspension was too "soft." Winfield wasn't sure what became of Conrad's dream machine.

Bill Taylor said his phone started ringing soon after The Bee hit the streets Sunday.

"A friend called and said, 'Do you know your car's famous?' Taylor said. "I said, 'What car?' He told me I needed to read The Bee a little closer."

That was just the beginning.

"A lot of people have called," Taylor said. "They're excited about the car."

You can include Winfield in that group.

Winfield, who will be in Modesto on Saturday and Sunday for the Graffiti Tribute, said he plans to get in touch with the Taylors.

Las Vegas resident Buster Macklin also was happy to learn that the Conrad Special is being restored.

Macklin's wife, Pamela, is the daughter of Leroy Conrad.

"That's great news," he said. "My wife is in the hospital. She'll be really excited when I tell her about this. All I know about the car is (Conrad) built it from scratch at his house. He was a mechanic.

"We have one picture of it; an 8-by-10 showing a side view."

A picture of the car, in its original form, would greatly assist the Taylors in their restoration work.

"We want to restore this car to the way it was," Bill Taylor said. "This is a piece of Modesto's history."

Bee staff writer Mike Mooney can be reached at mmooney@modbee.com or 578-2384.